Dave Smith Instruments TETRA - Manual (Page 15)

9
Basic Operation
Tetra has multiple personalities. It is a four-voice, analog poly synth, a sort of
“mini Prophet.” But the voice architecture is based on Mopho, so it has a couple
of sonic tricks up its sleeve—specifically sub-octave generators and feedback—
that are absent from the Prophet. Tetra is also a four-part, multitimbral synth
with separate outputs, essentially four Mophos in one very compact box. And
it’s a voice expander for other Tetras or for a Prophet ’08. (Program banks 1 and
2 are the Prophet ’08 factory programs.)
In designing Tetra, the goal was to make a great sounding synth that was also
affordable. Toward that end, we wanted to give players enough control over
parameters to make it useful for performance, so we came up with a
combination of “hard-wired” commonly used controls and user-assignable
controls. Any of Tetra’s parameters can be edited in real time from the front
panel controls. But we also recognize that may not be the quickest or easiest
way to program sounds from scratch. A free editor for Mac OS and Windows
gives you easy access to all of Tetra’s program parameters. Download it here:
www.soundtower.com/tetra. Also, an advanced version of the editor with more
features can be purchased from our Web site.
Note: The Prophet ’08’s controls map directly to Tetra’s, so if you have a
Prophet ’08, you can use it as a MIDI control surface for Tetra.
Programs
When Tetra first powers up, it is in Program Mode. The top line of the LCD
shows the Program (1…128) and Bank (1…4) number of the currently selected
program, and the bottom line shows the 16-character name of the program.
S
ELECT
changes the program. The program can also be changed by pressing the
increment (+) or decrement (-) switches. To increment to the next bank, hold the
increment switch briefly; to decrement to the previous bank, hold the decrement
switch.
To edit a program, simply turn any knob. The A
SSIGNABLE
P
ARAMETERS
knobs
have been preset to useful parameters for the factory programs. To change a
knob’s assignment, press A
SSIGN
P
ARAMETERS
to light the LED. Turning any of
the A
SSIGNABLE
P
ARAMETERS
knobs now will scroll through the list of available
parameters. Choose one or more parameters to edit and then press A
SSIGN
P
ARAMETERS
again to exit the assignment mode (A
SSIGN
P
ARAMETERS
LED
should now be off). Alternately, turn A
SSIGN
P
ARAMETERS
on, use any of the
A
SSIGNABLE
P
ARAMETERS
knobs to choose a parameter, and change the value
with S
ELECT
or the increment (+) and decrement (-) buttons. See Program
Parameters on page 17 for a detailed list of all parameters and their functions.
After editing parameters, press the Mode (P
ROGRAM
/C
OMBO
/G
LOBAL
) switch to
exit Edit Mode and return to Program Mode.